Man Hopping Backyard Fences Eludes Capture

Residents in one section of Novato’s San Marin neighborhood were woken up early Thursday as police and sheriff’s deputies tried to find a man who was lurking in someone’s backyard and seen jumping fences, sources said.

were called at 2:11 a.m. by a homeowner who said he saw a man in his backyard and yelled at him to leave, police Lt. Keith Heiden said. One officer who responded to the 400 block of San Marin Drive near San Carlos Way witnessed a man leaping over a fence.

Heiden said officers including a canine unit searched the area and could not locate an unwanted subject. Witnesses said police searched homes along San Marin, San Carlos, Dorothy Way and Sophia Court and knocked on doors as they scoured backyards.